ISC2 CC Security Operations Practice Question
An organization needs to retain authentication logs for compliance with PCI DSS. What is the minimum retention period required, and how long must the logs be immediately available?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
12 months retention, 3 months immediately available
PCI DSS requires logs to be retained for at least 12 months, with the most recent 3 months immediately accessible for analysis.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
18 months retention, 6 months immediately available
Why it's wrong here
This exceeds PCI DSS minimum requirements.
- ✓
12 months retention, 3 months immediately available
Why this is correct
This matches PCI DSS requirements.
- ✗
6 months retention, 1 month immediately available
Why it's wrong here
PCI DSS requires longer retention.
- ✗
24 months retention, 12 months immediately available
Why it's wrong here
This is more than required.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Authentication and Authorization Methods
Key term
Compliance
Compliance is the process of ensuring that an organization follows laws, regulations, standards, and internal policies that apply to its operations and data handling.
Key term
Analysis
In incident response, analysis is the process of examining data and events to determine what happened, how it happened, and what actions to take.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CC exam.